Lanes of the Road
Service Providers (contd.)
Federal Wiretap Act (see 18 U.S.C. §2511(2)(a)(i))

Service providers tend to be on the front lines of cyber attacks. Because of the service provider exception to the general prohibition against interceptions, they can provide important and timely notification of an attack. Absent consent, law enforcement, counterintelligence or intelligence agents would generally require a Title III court order or a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, court order respectively to intercept such communications. Note that the USA PATRIOT Act also added the computer trespasser exception as an exception to this general requirement. Obtaining court orders can be a trying and time-consuming proposition. We will address later in this course the scope and limitations of the Service Provider exception.

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